Texan James Allen "Jim" Cullum, Jr., has spent most of his professional life as a cornetist in service to his passion for researching, preserving, and presenting jazz and popular song from the turn of the 20th century to the mid-1940s. As a result he has helped to preserve the traditions of Dixieland jazz and the memory of some of its greatest practitioners. Best known perhaps for his radio show Riverwalk, Live From the Landing, Cullum was born in San Antonio, Texas, from which the show is broadcast.

Cullum's dad, clarinetist Jim Sr., led the Happy Jazz Band in which young Jim played cornet, having taught himself on a horn he found in a pawn shop when he was 14. Cullum's other musical influences included King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Yank Lawson, Bobby Hackett, and others he found on his dad's extensive record collection. Also in the collection were recordings of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke—another of Cullum's guiding musical lights—whose solos the young Cullum managed to learn by ear.

By high school, Cullum was performing in dance bands, and on the death of his father he helped the Happy Jazz Band evolve into The Jim Cullum Jazz Band. The band's repertoire consists of original compositions as well as a rich serving from the jazz heritage including music of W. C. Handy, Jelly Roll Morton, Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin, and others. Cullum's radio program, Riverwalk, Live From The Landing, was created in 1989 to promote jazz history with the widest possible audience and each hour-long show features The Jim Cullum Jazz Band performing with a mix of legendary jazz performers and younger jazz artists.

Since 1993, Jim has served on the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Festival and Workshop while putting out more than 50 recordings and arranging more than 1,000 musical compositions. He has performed in jazz festivals throughout the world and in venues like Wolff Trap, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall. Cullum also has a special interest in bringing musical instruction to elementary school children in San Antonio.

Fiddler on the Roof was the first Broadway production to pass the 3,000-performance mark—eventually reaching 3,242 shows before the final curtain fell on the Jerome Robbins-directed musical. Starting at the Imperial Theater, Fiddler moved to the Majestic Theater in 1967 and went on in 1970 to The Broadway Theater before ending its run. Interestingly, Fiddler was also the last original Broadway staging for Robbins, who was also the show's choreographer.

Jerry Bock composed the production's music, with a book by Joseph Stein and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Fiddler's sets were inspired by the paintings of artist Marc Chagall, and the plot was based on Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem' short story Tevye and His Daughters. Zero Mostel played the starring role of Tevye, a father of five daughters who struggles to hold on to tradition as his world crumbles around him.

The original production of Fiddler on the Roof was also one of Broadway's most lucrative stagings, returning the show's angels $1,574 for every dollar invested in it. Nominated for 10 Tony Awards, Fiddler won nine, including best musical, score, book, direction, and choreography. Numerous revivals followed the Broadway premiere and a movie version of Fiddler on the Roof appeared in 1971.

Week of September 12, 2011
Event: The Metropolitan Opera Opens its New Opera House at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Birthday: Trumpeter Brian Lynch, September 12, 1956

Week of September 5, 2011
Event: Singer Songwriter, and Record Producer Otis Redding,
Records His Hit "(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay"